Personality and the Prediction of Team Performance

Surgeon perceptions of personality as an influencing factor on anastomotic decision-making: A qualitative analysis

AIM

Surgeon personality is a factor influencing rectal anastomotic decision-making. However, it is unclear how or why this may be the case, or what aspects of personality are involved. The aim of this study was to investigate the views of colorectal surgeons on how their individual personality may influence variation in anastomotic decision-making.

METHOD

Purposive sampling was used to invite certified UK-based colorectal surgeons to participate, with individual interviews used for data collection. Participants were recruited until ongoing data review indicated no new codes were generated (i.e. data sufficiency). Data were analysed thematically following Braun and Clarke's six-step framework.

RESULTS

Seventeen colorectal surgeons (eight female, nine male) participated. Two key themes relating to personality and decision-making were identified: (1) surgeon development and training and (2) patient-surgeon interactions, each with relevant subthemes. Surgeons described how their personality may influence patients' postoperative outcomes (e.g. decision-making, team working and communication) and potential mechanisms for how their personality may influence operative risk-taking. Following anastomotic leakage, surgeons described a disproportionate sense of guilt and responsibility. There appears to be a significant transition in responsibility from trainee to newly appointed consultant, which may be part of the 'hidden curriculum' of surgical training.

CONCLUSION

Colorectal surgeons have described their perceptions of how personality traits may impact variation in decision-making and patient outcomes for the first time. Early career surgeons felt ill-prepared for the level of guilt experienced when managing complications. Surgeons appear open to personality assessment if this was through an educational lens, with the aim of improving decision-making following complications and overall performance.

Exploring the Effect of Team-Environment Fit in the Relationship Between Team Personality, Job Satisfaction, and Performance

This study explores whether team-organization fit (T-O fit) and team-job fit (T-J fit) play a mediating role between team personality, team job satisfaction, and team performance. Conscientiousness and openness to experience are common antecedents of team personality. Additionally, T-O fit and T-J fit are derived from person-environment fit theory, which is used to discuss the interaction between team members and the environment that affects behavior. The research purpose is to understand the factors that affect job satisfaction and performance from a team perspective. This is different from previous studies based on an individual perspective. The research object of this study has 365 respondents from 81 teams in different industries, and the structural equation modeling is applied to the empirical analysis. The research results show that T-J fit has a significant mediating effect on team personality and team job satisfaction. The team job satisfaction has also a significant mediating effect on team personality and team performance. Therefore, when team members recognize their work, they work harder to achieve team job satisfaction and performance. This study suggests that companies not only pay attention to the work abilities of employees, but also understand the fit between them and their jobs.

How Personality and Communication Patterns Affect Online ad-hoc Teams Under Pressure

Critical, time-bounded, and high-stress tasks, like incident response, have often been solved by teams that are cohesive, adaptable, and prepared. Although a fair share of the literature has explored the effect of personality on various other types of teams and tasks, little is known about how it contributes to teamwork when teams of strangers have to cooperate ad-hoc, fast, and efficiently. This study explores the dynamics between 120 crowd participants paired into 60 virtual dyads and their collaboration outcome during the execution of a high-pressure, time-bound task. Results show that the personality trait of Openness to experience may impact team performance with teams with higher minimum levels of Openness more likely to defuse the bomb on time. An analysis of communication patterns suggests that winners made more use of action and response statements. The team role was linked to the individual's preference of certain communication patterns and related to their perception of the collaboration quality. Highly agreeable individuals seemed to cope better with losing, and individuals in teams heterogeneous in Conscientiousness seemed to feel better about collaboration quality. Our results also suggest there may be some impact of gender on performance. As this study was exploratory in nature, follow-on studies are needed to confirm these results. We discuss how these findings can help the development of AI systems to aid the formation and support of crowdsourced remote emergency teams.

Team Processes and Outcomes During the AMADEE-18 Mars Analog Mission

The aim of this study was to examine team functioning within the context of the AMADEE 18 Mars analog project, which took place in Oman in the winter of 2018. Five "Analog Astronauts" participated in this study. Each completed measures of individual-level variables, including demographics and personality, before the simulated Mars mission began. At several time points during the mission, and once at the end, participants completed measures of individual stress reactions, and teamwork-related variables, including several types of team conflict, citizenship behavior, in-role behavior, counterproductive behavior, and social loafing. Each participant also reported how well he or she felt the team performed. The results indicate an overall positive, successful teamwork experience. Factors including measurement issues, psychological simulation fidelity, and qualities of the team likely influenced these results. Measuring important team- and individual-level variables during additional space analog events, while considering factors related to psychological fidelity, will allow for the compilation of data to better understand the factors affecting teams in these unusual contexts.

What makes a great clinical team? Stakeholder perspectives on the attributes of effective veterinary health care teams in Australia

Extensive research in the business and organisational literature links teamwork to enhanced productivity and employee job satisfaction. Good teamwork capability is also a highly regarded graduate attribute linked to employability. This study explored desirable teamwork attributes for veterinary technology graduates in Australia, by surveying veterinarians, veterinary technology graduates, veterinary nurses, clients and academics. Respondents highlighted the importance of seven attributes sourced from the cross-disciplinary teamwork literature-'flexibility' (in approach to work), 'agreeableness', being 'cooperative', 'socially sensitive and perceptive', 'conscientiousness', being 'accepting of others' and 'sharing professional values'. The majority in each stakeholder group viewed all attributes important for teamwork concurring with findings in other fields. Few differences were found between and within groups with veterinarians and academics rating 'conscientiousness' higher than others and female clients placing more importance on relational attributes compared to male clients. Thematic analysis of an open-ended item asking the veterinary health care groups, and veterinary academics, to define teamwork generated nine themes centred on: collaboration, goals and outcomes, sharing values, relationships, diversity, communication, task-orientation, personal attributes, and workplace culture. This study illuminates an interprofessional perspective on veterinary teamwork. Results will be useful for veterinary technology, veterinary nursing and veterinary educators when developing a curriculum for interprofessional teamwork to enhance team performance, employability and, ultimately, the quality of veterinary services.

The Emergence of Group Potency and Its Implications for Team Effectiveness

Much of the previous research on the emergence of team-level constructs has overlooked their inherently dynamic nature by relying on static, cross-sectional approaches. Although theoretical arguments regarding emergent states have underscored the importance of considering time, minimal work has examined the dynamics of emergent states. In the present research, we address this limitation by investigating the dynamic nature of group potency, a crucial emergent state, over time. Theory around the "better-than-average" effect (i.e., an individual's tendency to think he/she is better than the average person) suggests that individuals may have elevated expectations of their group's early potency, but may decrease over time as team members interact gain a more realistic perspective of their group's potential. In addition, as members gain experience with each other, they will develop a shared understanding of their team's attributes. The current study used latent growth and consensus emergence modeling to examine how potency changes over time, and its relation with team effectiveness. Further, in accordance with the input-process-output framework, we investigated how group potency mediated the relations between team-level compositions of conscientiousness and extraversion and team effectiveness. We collected data at three time points throughout an engineering design course from 337 first-year engineering students that comprised 77 project teams. Results indicated that group potency decreased over time in a linear trend, and that group consensus increased over time. We also found that teams' initial potency was a significant predictor of team effectiveness, but that change in potency was not related to team effectiveness. Finally, we found that the indirect effect linking conscientiousness to effectiveness, through initial potency, was supported. Overall, the current study offers a unique understanding of the emergence of group potency, and facilitate a number theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed.

Personality characteristics that are valued in teams: Not always "more is better"?

This study investigates the relationships between personality traits and contributions to teamwork that are often assumed to be linear. We use a theory‐driven approach to propose that extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness have inverted U‐shaped relationships with contributions to teamwork. In a sample of 220 participants asked to perform a creative task in teams, we found that extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness were curvilinearly associated with peer‐rated contributions to teamwork in such a way that the associations were positive, with a decreasing slope, up to a peak, and then they became negative as personality scores further increased. We replicated the results concerning the non‐linear association between extraversion, conscientiousness and peer‐rated contributions to teamwork in a sample of 314 participants engaged in a collaborative learning exercise. Our results support recent claims and empirical evidence that explorations of personality–work‐related behaviours relationships should move beyond the linearity assumptions. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research for personnel selection.

Strengthening the bond and enhancing team performance

Purpose

Using interpersonal relationship development as a metaphor for team process, the purpose of this paper is to explore critical psychological mechanisms transforming team inputs into successful work outcomes, at the individual level.

Design/methodology/approach

The participants in this study were full-time employees in Taiwan. The authors employed a two-phase design to examine the developmental aspect of, and the enhancer for the team process. Paper-based questionnaires were used to collect data. All the research constructs were assessed at the individual level, thus analysis was conducted at the same level.

Findings

The results from 338 Taiwanese employees revealed that perceived psychological similarity (i.e. value and attitudinal congruence, a team input) led to favorable work outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and team performance) through the linking mechanism of team cohesion. Furthermore, team members’ trait emotional intelligence (EI) amplified the positive relationship between psychological similarity and team cohesion.

Practical implications

First, managers should purposefully assemble employees with similar values and interests to work together, giving the team a good start with the like minds. Second, the results indicated that trait EI as a key personal resource enhances the positive relationship between psychological similarity and team cohesion. Workplace learning interventions should be implemented to improve employees’ emotion management skills.

Originality/value

Adopting the interpersonal relationship development perspective to study team process, the findings have confirmed the important roles of perceived psychological similarity among members and individual’s EI for team functioning. The authors’ endeavor has demonstrated the value of solid theoretical basis and the benefit of an individual-level analysis in delineating the mediating processes that explain why certain inputs affect team effectiveness and viability.

Examining Equity Sensitivity: An Investigation Using the Big Five and HEXACO Models of Personality

The construct of equity sensitivity describes an individual's preference about his/her desired input to outcome ratio. Individuals high on equity sensitivity tend to be more input oriented, and are often called “Benevolents.” Individuals low on equity sensitivity are more outcome oriented, and are described as “Entitleds.” Given that equity sensitivity has often been described as a trait, the purpose of the present study was to examine major personality correlates of equity sensitivity, so as to inform both the nature of equity sensitivity, and the potential processes through which certain broad personality traits may relate to outcomes. We examined the personality correlates of equity sensitivity across three studies (total N = 1170), two personality models (i.e., the Big Five and HEXACO), the two most common measures of equity sensitivity (i.e., the Equity Preference Questionnaire and Equity Sensitivity Inventory), and using both self and peer reports of personality (in Study 3). Although results varied somewhat across samples, the personality variables of Conscientiousness and Honesty-Humility, followed by Agreeableness, were the most robust predictors of equity sensitivity. Individuals higher on these traits were more likely to be Benevolents, whereas those lower on these traits were more likely to be Entitleds. Although some associations between Extraversion, Openness, and Neuroticism and equity sensitivity were observed, these were generally not robust. Overall, it appears that there are several prominent personality variables underlying equity sensitivity, and that the addition of the HEXACO model's dimension of Honesty-Humility substantially contributes to our understanding of equity sensitivity.

Team Performance as a Joint Function of Team Member Satisfaction and Agreeableness

Recent research on team personality has paid growing attention to team agreeableness; yet the literature is replete with mixed findings regarding the relationship between team agreeableness and team performance. Following the emerging trend of examining the moderating role of team personality traits in team dynamics, we propose a novel view of team agreeableness as a moderator for the relationship between team member satisfaction and team performance. With 230 senior-level professionals in 42 self-managed teams, we found that when team agreeableness was low, team member satisfaction was positively related to team performance, whereas when team agreeableness was high, team member satisfaction was not significantly related to team performance. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Team Meeting Attitudes

Although most work teams use meetings as a tool for accomplishing their objectives, there is little research examining meeting-related variables in teams. In this article, we propose a new construct, team meeting attitudes (TMA), that involves individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and evaluations of team meetings. We constructed a scale that measures individuals’ TMA, and we report on the scale’s psychometric properties, including test-retest reliabilities, over four measurement occasions. Using a sample of engineering project design teams, intraclass correlations of repeated measurements suggested that TMA appeared to emerge over time. Moreover, our TMA scale, aggregated to the team level using the mean, had direct effects on time spent in team meetings, perceptions of team meeting effectiveness, and team potency. Mean TMA were also indirectly related to team task performance through team potency. These findings were interpreted as supportive of activity regulation and action theories because teams with high means on TMA may have members who view team meetings as conducive to goal accomplishment and not as interruptive.